How to Draw Cartoon Faces - And Be Original With It

Are you happy with the way your cartoon characters are turning out, or are they lacking that touch of originality that makes them stand out, and makes your personal style and talent recognizable?

If you've learned to draw cartoons by following the standard, established rules and techniques of cartooning, then it's not surprising if your characters look much like those of other cartoonists who've learned the same way. But there is another way, a more exciting way, to create cartoon faces with complete originality - using a method I call: Spontaneous Cartooning.

With this method, you doodle a shape onto your drawing paper - freely, spontaneously, without forethought. It's actually more a sort of scribbling.

Next, you look at what you've drawn, turning the image around to see it from different angles, and you try to pick out specific elements that could be recognizable as facial features - it's not hard to see a curve as an ear, or chin, or nose. But the real trick is to construct a complete cartoon face from the lines on the paper.

You can add new lines of course, and ignore others that don't seem to fit. Retracing the most defining lines and adding shading help to isolate the recognizable features.

Start simple, using basic shapes, and increase the complexity of your squiggles as you become more adept.

This method of cartoon drawing has distinct and unique advantages:

1) It increases your ability to see form and shape in abstract compositions,

2) It develops your talent for caricaturing, by freeing you from the restraints of standardized cartoon-drawing techniques,

3) It encourages you to be more daring and adventurous in your creativity,

4) The results cannot be anything but original - since they have been created without planning, and using the unique dexterity of your own finger movements.

Rules can be followed, used, abused or ignored, including the rules of cartooning. Spontaneous cartooning is the "free-jazz-improvisation" of cartoon drawing.

As with any activity, the more you do something, the better you become at it. To be a great, original cartoonist, requires you to draw lots, and often. An activity as fun as spontaneous cartooning will give you many hours of stimulating drawing practice - without ever becoming repetitive, or boring.



Cartooning is easy, and my website http://www.drawingcartoon.net
is there to show you how you can become an original cartoon artist. Or see me in action on http://www.youtube.com/user/MonaghanMike and be inspired to unleash your own cartooning talents.




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Cartoon Me - Draw Cartoon Faces

If you are an aspiring artist, you certainly know how difficult it is to draw a cartoon avatar of someone or yourself. Drawing caricatures is not easy and takes a lot of meticulous practice and patience. It can literally take years of practice to get the process down right.

When I first started trying to draw a cartoon me avatar, I discovered it was far more challenging than I was lead to believe. I am told that even professional artists sometimes have a difficult time making the cartoon resemble the person they are drawing. I always wondered if there was a short cut or an easy way to learn this.

I thought enrolling in art classes would solve the problem. Little did I know that drawing a cartoon avatar was a lot more than enrolling in some art class at the local community college. I found that drawing something so complicated was more natural talent than a learned skill.

I would say the main reason that is not easy to draw a cartoon me avatar is because most of it comes down to natural talent. There is only so much you can learn. It is almost like singing, where you either have it or you do not. There is no amount of practice that one can do to improve once they reach a certain point. Basically it comes down to ones natural artistic gift.

Sometimes when I just tried to draw a person, it actually turned out they looked more like a cartoon anyways. This was unintentional but due more to my lack of natural artistic ability. Although I can draw a cartoon avatar, it is not nearly as good as some people can.

The hardest part of drawing a cartoon me avatar is definitely coloring the eyes. The eyes bring the face to life and are what make the drawing unique and real. There was nothing that challenged me more than bringing a cartoon face to life by perfectly drawing the eyes.

The newest way to actually draw a decent cartoon face is to find a computer program to help you do the hard work. There are many computer programs online that will actually assist you in turning a photo of yourself into a cartoon avatar.

If you are determined to become a great artist, it takes natural talent, skill and patience. By balancing all of things with plenty of practice, you should be able to draw a cartoon me avatar in a few months.



Did you know that you can create 95% of cartoon me avatar face caricatures in just a few minutes? Find out exactly how to do draw a cartoon me avatar face quickly and easily in just a few minutes with no previous art skills.




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